Boost for Medicare payments to doctors in selected California counties — Sen. Coburn wants to strip it from tax bill.

New circuit breaker rules to halt trading on the nation's exchanges could go into effect as early as Friday. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted the new rules Thursday that will require a pause in U.S. equity markets when the prices of certain individual stocks move 10 percent or more in a five-minute period.  

Implementation begins Friday with the trading pause applying to all stocks in the S&P 500 Index, and will be in effect as a pilot program for six months, until Dec. 10. Once changes are made to improve the new circuit breaker, the SEC will rapidly expand the program to thousands of publicly traded companies. 

"By establishing a set of circuit breakers that uniformly pauses trading in a given security across all venues, these new rules will ensure that all markets pause simultaneously and provide time for buyers and sellers to trade at rational prices," SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said in a Thursday release. 

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday defended tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush, saying they did not lead to the deficit that currently confronts the country. 

"It's not the marginal tax rates ... that's not what led to the budget deficit," he told reporters, adding, "The revenue problem we have today is a result of what happened in the economic collapse some 18 months ago." 

Exports dropped for the second time in three months as the U.S. trade deficit rose to the highest level in nearly two years, a possible sign that Europe's economic troubles are affecting the nation's expanding manufacturing sector. 

The trade deficit widened to $40.3 billion in April, up 0.6 percent from $40 billion in March, according to a Commerce Department report released Thursday. 

The U.S. manufacturing sector is doing the heavy lifting so far in the nation's economic recovery — adding jobs and expanding production through most of 2010.

Exports fell to $148.8 billion in April on drops in consumer goods, foods, feeds and beverages. Farm products fell by $647 million. 

Imports slipped to $189.1 billion while demand for consumer goods, mostly pharmaceutical products, fell by $741 million. 

New jobless claims dropped by 3,000 last week — still not enough to show the labor market is hiring. 

Claims dropped to 456,000 for the week ending June 5, which is not low enough to show sustained job growth, according to Labor Department figures released Thursday. 

The four-week moving average, which smooths out the volatility of the weekly number, rose 2,500 to 463,000. 

The number of people receiving unemployment insurance fell 255,000 to 4.46 million, the lowest level since December 2008. 

Economists argue that jobless claims need to drop into the low 400,000s or high 300,000s to reflect stronger job growth in the private sector. 

The unemployment rate dropped to 9.7 percent in May on the creation of more than 400,000 jobs. But most of those jobs were temporary government jobs for the federal Census, not from the private sector. 

The president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association blasted Senate Democratic leaders for including a tax increase for an oil spill trust fund in the so-called extenders bill while simultaneously easing the tax for investment fund managers.

"This proposal amounts to an effort to pay Wall Street by robbing Main Street," Charles Drevna said in prepared remarks. "This tax increase will raise the cost of gasoline, diesel fuel and other products for American families, all in the name of giving more tax breaks to bankers and hedge fund managers."
Read more...

Congress is in the final stages of approving legislation that seeks to prevent future taxpayer-funded bailouts of financial firms.

The U.S. economy grew in April and May for the first time in more than two years, bolstered by increases in consumer spending, real estate sales and manufacturing, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in a business report. 

"Economic activity continued to improve since the last report across all 12 Federal Reserve Districts, although many Districts described the pace of growth as 'modest,'" the Fed said in its Beige Book on Wednesday. The survey of businesses is published throughout the year, two weeks before the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets to set monetary policy. 

Consumer spending improved from the last report but spending was still concentrated in necessities instead of discretionary big-ticket items. Retail sales were up in the two months covered by the report, although gains were reported as "uneven across months," the report said. 

House leaders announced their conferees for the House-Senate conference to work out final details on a financial regulatory reform bill set to begin Thursday afternoon. 

The conference can be watched on C-SPAN3 or C-SPAN.org. It also will be webcast on the House Financial Services or the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs websites. 

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced the Democrats from the House Financial Services Committee: Chairman Barney Frank (Mass.); Reps. Paul Kanjorski (Pa.); Maxine Waters (Calif.); Carolyn Maloney (N.Y.), Luis Gutierrez (Ill.); Mel Watt (N.C); Gregory Meeks (N.Y.); Dennis Moore (Kan.); Mary Jo Kilroy (Ohio) and Gary Peters (Mich).

In addition, several members were named to oversee specific sections of the bill. 

House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson (Minn.) and Rep. Leonard Boswell (Iowa); House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (Calif.) and Rep. Bobby Rush (Ill.); House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (Mich.) and Rep. Howard Berman (Calif.); House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Edolphus Towns (N.Y.) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.); House Small Business Chairman Nydia Velazquez (N.Y.) and Rep. Heath Shuler (N.C.).

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced his conferees on Wednesday. 

Reps. Spencer Bachus (Ala.); Joe Barton (Texas); Sam Graves (Mo.); Darrell Issa (Calif.); Frank Lucas (Okla.); Lamar Smith (Texas); Ed Royce (Calif.); Judy Biggert (Ill.); Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.); Jeb Hensarling (Texas) and Scott Garrett (N.J.). 

The conference, which begins at 2:15 p.m. Thursday, is expected to last between six and eight days. After opening statements are completed in the first meeting, members will meet on the House side from Tuesday through Thursday of next week. After that, the conference is likely to move to the Senate side the week of June 21 for three days — Tuesday through Thursday again. If necessary the conference could extend into Friday and Saturday.